ABOUT LUNA ROSSA . . .

Anne-Marie Helder

LUNA ROSSA’s lead singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Anne-Marie has been a recording / performing artist on the UK and international music scene for many years. She released a debut EP 'The Contact’ in 2004, and toured prolifically as a solo artist. She has also played in many band incarnations, but is perhaps most famous for her work with the British rock band PANIC ROOM(Also featuring Jonathan Edwards, below)Anne-Marie fronts the band, and she and Jonathan are the main songwriters for both Luna Rossa and Panic Room. The duo's songwriting collaborations have won many awards in recent years, including 'Best Song' from the CRS Awards for their track 'Satellite' (Panic Room, 'Satellite' 2010)

Famed for her warm, expressive and soaring voice, Anne-Marie was voted PROG Magazine's Best Female Vocalist of the year in both 2011 and 2012.In addition she has regularly played as a member of bands including Mostly Autumn and Halo Blind; and has recorded guest sessions as well as performing live with artists including Ultravox, Fish, Glenn Tilbrook (Squeeze), John Wetton & Geoff Downes, The New Dance Orchestra & many more.

In other incarnations, Anne-Marie has also written music for - and performs with - the vocal chamber choir Coro 94.

Jonathan Edwards

The other half of LUNA ROSSA is songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jonathan, who writes, records, and performs on the piano (and sometimes guitar!). A highly accomplished musician, Jon’s playing style is hugely expressive and instantly recognisable - journalists and fans will alike single him out for his creativity, his melodies, but also his ability to create ‘space’ in his arrangements by letting the music breathe.

Jon was a founder member, songwriter and keyboard player for the award-winning Welsh prog band, Karnataka - in their original line-up - appearing on the first four albums and touring extensively. He also performed occasionally with Mermaid Kiss (appearing on the 'Etarlis’ album, and their as-yet untitled next album),as well as being one half of John Paul Jones (!) in a Led Zeppelin tribute band for a number of years… (Someone else played the bass!)After the original Karnataka split up, Jon went on to create the alt-rock band PANIC ROOM with Anne-Marie and several other ex-K members… and they’ve never looked back. The ultimate creative freedom of working in PANIC ROOM has allowed Jon’s writing and playing to truly shine, and many Awards have followed as a result. The close bond of friendship and songwriting shared with Anne-Marie has inspired a prolific flow of creativity, which then led to the birth of LUNA ROSSA!

The perfect outlet for the duo’s more acoustic and rootsy ideas, LUNA ROSSA also allows Jon’s beautiful and unique playing to really shine through the mix.

Sleeping Pills & Lullabies - THE ALBUM

While writing songs for Panic Room over the years, both Anne-Marie and Jon found that their mutual love for acoustic music often filtered through into the Panic Room sound. But although some of their acoustic songs do find their way onto Panic Room albums, the pair found that they were also writing songs which didn’t really ‘fit’ into the world of Panic Room and created LUNA ROSSA to provide a seperate avenue to explore their more acoustic side. Writing and arranging sessions produced a wealth of material (including some interesting and unusual cover versions), some of which can be found on the first LUNA ROSSA release. Anne-Marie and Jon decided to use a string quartet on many of the songs and on ‘Sleeping Pills & Lullabies‘ you can hear their first written string arrangements (the album was recorded before Panic Room’s ‘SKIN‘'). Keeping the acoustic vibe they also invited Andy 'Wal' Coughlan to play double-bass on the album as well as cellist, Leah Evans. With just some little electronic touches – the occasional rhodes part, or rhythm loop to lend some spikyness to the songs, they’ve created a new sound, that manages to sound both fresh and familiar… the sound of LUNA ROSSA.THANKS...

Anne-Marie & Jon would like to thank our extended musical family: Tim Hamill for his endless patience with us, for laying down some great dobro licks and generally being inspirational and excellent, Wal for being so ridiculously good that we couldn’t help grinning whenever he played and the LUNA ROSSA Quartet; Leah, Artem, Rebecca and Ronan for playing our string arrangements so luminously! Thanks also to Peter and Sian for the loan of the harp and finally to you, for helping to keep music sonic, visual and tactile!

Thank you for supporting LUNA ROSSA, PANIC ROOM, & all artists who are creating original music. Your support directly helps us to make the music of the future…...N.B: Please do not upload LUNA ROSSA's music to torrent sites (or anywhere on the internet), make physical copies for friends, or sharefull songs digitally – this will harm the careers of the musicians and songwriters, making it less possible for them to continue making music. LUNA ROSSA are independent and self-funded, so any profits from the sales of our albums will fund our future recordings. Many Thanks!